Wide area computer networks are often maintained by a system administrator. One of the system administrator's functions is to set policy for and to maintain software on the computers comprising the network. Typically, the system administrator decides, among other things, which software products are to be installed on the client computers and how that software is to be configured.
In most wide area networks, the system administrator can communicate with each computer on the network in a secure manner because the computers are connected together with a private communication link. Messages, files, and data can be sent over the private communication link from one or more central servers to each computer on the network, and the computers on the network can use the private communication link to send messages, files, and data to one or more central servers.
Most wide area networks are also set up so that the system administrator can use a central server to configure software on the other computers in the network. The system administrator can issue and control policy for the wide area network and can update and configure software on any or all computers within the network. One typical and routine practice of a computer network system administrator is to periodically update virus scanning software, intrusion detection tools, etc. on the computers in the administrator's network. Various tools are available for facilitating such network management. One particular example of such a tool is the EPOLICY ORCHESTRATOR device manufactured by MCAFEE, INC.
However, before the administrator can manage a network in the foregoing manner, each of the pertinent network devices must first be discovered. In the past, this discovery process has been highly manual in nature. For example, some systems have relied heavily on manual entry or importation of data identifying such network devices. Unfortunately, such systems are more susceptible to error, inefficient, etc.
There is thus a need for overcoming these and/or other problems associated with the prior art.